GLOBALISATION

L.A Weekly: The Real Thing
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil — It’s hard not to be moved — deeply moved — when you hear Brazil’s new president speak. And even harder not to be downright jarred by the realization — by comparison — of how very hollow, how very dead-ended, our own national politics have become. I can’t think of two countries today more politically divergent than the U.S. and Brazil, or two presidents who reveal more startlingly opposite political possibilities than George W. Bush and the newly inaugurated Luis Ignacio “Lula” da Silva.

We who live in the richest corner of the Earth, after a decade of the richest times? Only a thundering cascade of no, no, no. No tax relief for the poor — for that would be “class warfare.” No new money for public schools, for that would be “throwing good money after bad.” No rise in the minimum wage because that would be unfair to business. No national solution to the crisis of 50 million without health care because that would be “like going to the post office to see a doctor.”

Brazilians live precariously with the greatest of hopes. And we live with fabulous potential that is the legitimate envy of the globe, and we have, seemingly, no hope.